Issue 21, September 2017

Modern macroeconomics is mainly based in the solution and simulation of Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) models. Standard DSGE models have not, in general, a closed-form solution and they need to be solved numerically. This is an important entry barrier for the study of modern macroeconomics at an under-graduate level, not due to complexity at the theoretical level but to the need to apply computational methods. However, a spreadsheet contains tools that can be used for the numerical simulation of simple macroeconomic models. This document is part of a book, Computational Macroeconomics, by the authors with the main objective to introduce under-graduate students to the basis of Computational Macroeconomics. It comprises a series of computer exercises, using different theoretical simple models. The book is divided into three parts: Basic Dynamic Models, Dynamic General Equilibrium and Economic Growth. The objective is to solve very simple dynamic macroeconomics models using numerical and computational techniques in a spreadsheet like Excel. The book contains a set of simple spreadsheets which solve numerically a number of dynamics model and performing shocks analyses by computing impulse-response function for the macroeconomic variables. In this paper we present one of the exercises included in the book, consisting of the numerical simulation of a dynamic version of the standard IS-LM model.

I apply a recent methodology proposed by Borghans and Schils (2012) to a multiple choice test administered in an evaluation of business students. I find that on average the probability of correctly answering a question is reduced between a 8.52 and 11.2 percentage points when it occupies the last position in the test (in comparison to when it occupies the first position). In relative terms, this represents a 13.3-17.5% reduction in students’ test scores. Following previous research, we can associate students’ decline in performance with their non-cognitive skills.

CINEMARHE is a teaching project that uses cinema as a tool for university education. This article analyzes the need for an adequate selection of film material as a means to promote the understanding of concepts and the critical spirit of the students in the subjects of the experience, attached to the subjects of Marketing Fundamentals and Economic History. Likewise, it gives to the figure of the teacher an important role as a conductor of knowledge trasfering, acquiring the role of guide and tutor, abandoning the obsolete role of teacher instructor. The viewing of the selected films and the questionnaires made after the film viewing, confirmed the interest of this experience. The elaboration of a survey that specifies the main traits of the students, was made through a googel form, and served to define the profile of the student and an as evaluation of the multidisciplinary and transversal experience.

Economics for the Common Good is a very interesting book for the teaching of Public Economics, from which to arouse debates, encourage exercises and illustrate class contents. Its author, Tirole, a Nobel laureate in 2014, has written an extensive text addressing many of the current challenges and some of the deepest doubts the Economy and economists experience in their academic and social performance. He does so with an easy and rigorous language based on the analysis of the regulation and the organizations he has investigated. However, the work lacks a common thread that allows a systematic joint reading and to contrast its two starting points: where we are in the pursuit of the common good and if the Economy helps achieve it. In any case, its pages invite to question the prevailing intuitions and prejudices in the debate of the public agenda. So it would be a suitable instrument in the strategies of active and deep learning, some of which are summarized in this review.